Broncos forced to overcome attrition on defense in NFL playoffs

Denver trying to fill the gaps vs. Philip Rivers and the Chargers

All videos from the week leading up to the Denver Broncos facing the San Diego Chargers on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2014.

The story begins with No. 54, with a 24-year-old nobody. His name is Brandon Marshall. His Wikipedia page doesn't even have a photo, and Dec. 29 he was playing for the Broncos.

Playing five days after being promoted from the practice squad, where he spent the season's first 16 weeks.

Playing on defense, not even special teams, albeit in garbage time.

This season, the Denver defense has been plugged with replacements, caulked with other teams' castoffs. There's a defensive end who doubles as a rapper and was cut by the flailing Jaguars in November. There's the NFL's lone remaining XFL player. There's undrafted players and rookies, and there's Marshall.

He got his improbable shot on a defense with its sights realistically set on the Super Bowl, and if that sounds crazy, you haven't been paying attention.

By the numbers, the Denver defense — ranked 19th in yards allowed this season — doesn't even deserve to make the playoffs, except that these playoffs are teeming with poor defenses throughout the AFC: the Patriots, the Chargers, the Colts. The Broncos have a chance. In fact, the odds are in their favor — even if the numbers aren't quite.

Let's start with 21, as in 21st, as in the ranking, in terms of yards allowed, of the 2006 Colts' defense. That's the season Manning won the Super Bowl, not the 2002 season, when he had the eighth-best defense, or 2007, when he had the third-best. Not in 2012 with the Broncos, when Von Miller and company vaulted the Denver defense to second-best in the NFL in yards allowed.

"When he was with the Colts ... at times they were depleted, but Peyton Manning always seemed to elevate the players that were available to play," said ESPN analyst Herm Edwards, a former NFL cornerback and coach.

It's a two-way street, though. Manning's presence often redefines the approach his defenses face. Teams have learned that the way to beat Manning is to run, run, run and keep Manning off the field while further exhausting his team's defense.

Also, paying Manning and his high-flying offense can mean less money to pay for defensive players. The financial concern hasn't really been the case in Denver, though, where instead it's been fax machines, ACLs, marijuana, compartment syndrome, a seizure and more.

It's been a weird season.

"We're still professionals," said defensive end Shaun Phillips, who earned a starting job at Robert Ayers' expense. "It's 'next man up.' We have a bunch of guys eager to play football and who love learning to play football. We all piggyback on each other and help each other."

Miller injury hurts

Which brings us to the next number: four. That's how many players who will start in Sunday's home playoff game against the Chargers were expected to be defensive starters this season.

Only linebacker Danny Trevathan, safety Duke Ihenacho, defensive tackle Terrance Knighton and cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie topped the depth chart in the summer, and the defense's two leaders, Wesley Woodyard and Champ Bailey, are relegated to specialized roles because of lingering injuries.

Then there's the injury. The big one. The one that if you'd told anyone about a year ago, they'd have said it would break the Broncos. It's Miller's ACL. No matter the suspension, no matter his slow easing back into competition, there's no way around it.

Chargers coach Mike McCoy spelled it out as clear as day in a conference call with Denver media this week.

"Von is one of the best players in the league," McCoy said. "He's very talented."

Edwards is a Miller fan too.

"He's a threat," he said. "He's a guy that you're concerned with, because he can come off the edge, and this is a game where when you open up the formation to create matchup problems for your defense, the way you counter is you have to have an edge guy."

Signs of improvement

Even so, the loss might not doom the Broncos. Miller had five sacks in nine games this season. The rest of the defense had 36, giving the Broncos a total of 41 — not quite last year's league-leading 52, but still a perfectly respectable number, good for 13th in the NFL and just above the league average.

So the pass-rush pressure has been there much of the time. The coverage just hasn't, at times, and a run defense that was the best in the NFL to start the season — at least on paper — fell off to seventh in terms of yards allowed. There were moments at midseason when the defense looked bad — very bad — but even if three of the Broncos' final four opponents had losing records, Denver's defense finished strong.

Against the Titans in Week 14, the defense allowed 254 yards, the fourth-fewest Tennessee put up all season.

The next week, in a loss to the Chargers, it allowed only 337 yards, the Chargers' fourth-fewest of the season.

The same held in Week 16, with Denver allowing only 240 yards to the Texans.

Then, in Week 17, Oakland managed only 255 yards, its second-fewest of the season.

It's not a perfect indicator of improvement — one could argue that Oakland and Houston, at least, had checked out — but it's something.

According to Knighton, it's the start of something.

"The defense is at a point right now where we're ready to prove that we can be a great defense and get us to this championship," he said. "You play hard in the regular season to put yourself in a good position for the playoffs.

"It's the reason it's called the regular season and the postseason. It's two different seasons. We have to play at an elite level to win the Super Bowl, and that's what we're going to do."

Don't even think of suggesting that it's too late.

Taking a look at the Denver "D"

Analyzing Denver's defense heading into Sunday's playoff game against the San Diego Chargers at Sports Authority Field at Mile High:

Defensive linemen

Denver's defensive line has seen injuries and illness sideline two starters, Derek Wolfe and Kevin Vickerson. Also, Shaun Phillips moved into a starting role during the season after Robert Ayers was named a starting end at the beginning of the season.

As a unit the group has been solid, although its numbers against the run were perhaps inflated early in the season. ESPN analyst and former NFL player and coach Herm Edwards said that if he had to pick one player as the MVP of the Broncos' defense this year, it would be Phillips, who finished the regular season with 10 sacks and 32 quarterback hurries. As a unit, the defensive line accounted for 41 sacks this season, good for 13th in the NFL.

Linebackers

Denver's linebacking corps was perhaps the most changed unit as the season evolved. The team knew it would be missing Von Miller — who's technically listed as a linebacker — for its first six games with his suspension, but it had no idea that a nagging injury would reduce Wesley Woodyard's role. His replacement, Paris Lenon, wasn't even on the Broncos' roster to start the season.

There has been a pleasant surprise — or development, depending on your perspective — among the linebackers. Danny Trevathan has emerged as a leader at the position with Wood-yard's reduced role. Apart from Miller, Trevathan has graded out the highest among Denver linebackers on Pro Football Focus, ranking 11th among outside linebackers in 4-3 defenses.

Cornerbacks

Without Champ Bailey for much of the season and with him now relegated to a limited role, the Denver cornerbacks look different than they have in almost a decade. Chris Harris was a bonus in terms of his production, though, stepping into Bailey's slot with more consistency and effort than anyone could have expected. Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, the other starter, has been solid in a season when he was asked to prove himself or move on. And rookie Kayvon Webster, despite rocky patches, has shown a lot of promise.

Rodgers-Cromartie and Harris graded out among the top-10 cornerbacks in the NFL on Pro Football Focus, making the Broncos the only team in the league to have two starting cornerbacks among the top 10.

Safeties

When it comes to pass coverage this season, the Denver safeties have been the weaker link. Duke Ihenacho still is growing into his role. Rahim Moore was fine, but not great, before his injury. Mike Adams provided a spark later in the season when he stepped into a starting role, and having a veteran presence among the group seems to have helped.

On the season, the Broncos allowed 4,070 yards passing, sixth-worst among NFL teams.

Boulder is pretty good at producing rock bands, and by "rock," we mean the in-your-face, guitar-heavy, leather-clad variety — you know, the good kind. For a prime example, look no farther than BANDITS. Full Story